Are PETA animal advocates or animal killers?

By Chellie Cervone - Posted: Nov 19, 2013 at 2:20 pm

English: Cover of a comic book created by PETA...

Cover of a comic book created by PETA as part of one of their controversial media campaigns. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Are PETA animal advocates or animal killers?

A topic that is stirring much debate is why PETA, an organization that claims to be animal advocates kills so many animals each year. Are PETA animal advocates. or animal killers simply hiding behind an organization whose sole focus is to make money?

Many people are familiar with PETA because of their publicity stunts that garner a lot of media attention.

A number of their ads have been banned for being too sexy or too controversial and PETA capitalizes on this status by prominently displaying the ads on the site.

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Yet for all the fanfare and media they generate claiming to advocate for animals they kill thousands of animals each year.

Thousands.

(Photo and chart: PETA Kills Animals)

Ideally and as an animal advocate, I would love to see each and every animal saved, however we all know that is not possible.

PETA euthanizes most of the animals brought to them

Still, for an organization that claims to advocate for animals why were nearly 90% of the animals that were brought to them since 1998 killed?

Shelters across the US are overcrowded, due to the sheer number of animals they receive each year, and are faced with the very unpleasant task of playing God.

Photo of a shelter dog that was scared but we adopted him anyway.

Fonzi was considered “unadoptable” because he was afraid of people. Just two months later, Fonzi has blossomed into the perfect dog.

They have to decide which animals will live and which will be euthanized.

Sometimes the animals that are brought to shelters are very sick with a terminal illness and in horrific pain so they are euthanized.

Other times after careful screening the dog or cat is deemed too vicious to be placed up for adoption and is euthanized.

Sometimes an animal has a costly illness and is put down.

Many shelters will try to treat a sick animal and even raise funds for it’s care but if the goals are not met, the animal is euthanized because resources are needed for other animals in it’s care.

But there is another side.

Thousands of animals are deemed unadoptable simple because they are old or afraid.

A dog that is petrified because of their unfamiliar shelter surroundings and lying cowering in fear is in very real danger of being euthanized if their owner is not located quickly.

Countless thousands more dogs and cats are euthanized because they are deemed not cute enough to be adopted or because they had the misfortune of being born with a black coat.

In 2012 PETA received over 1,800 animals yet only 19 were adopted.

What happened to the other animals who were not adopted?

A little over 100 animals were transferred and the rest, 1,647 to be exact, were killed.

Those figures are staggering.

Having a hard time wrapping my head around why PETA kills the vast majority of animals placed in their care, I decided to contact their media department.

I had not visited thier official site recently and was immediately struct at the “salespersony” feel to it.

I found the media link and before I sent my message, there were a number of boxes I had to uncheck.

These boxes were opt ins for all types of mailing from PETA.

Interestingly, I continue to receive emails from PTA even though I specifically did not opt in when sending my inquiry.

I received a very quick reply from PETA explaining that their staff members, ” crawl through sewers, poke around junkyards, climb trees, and dodge traffic in order to reach animals in danger”.

Th personalized reply was not signed and was the same type of information and the same verbiage that can be found on their website.

In specifically answering my inquiry as to why so many animals that are placed in their care are killed, they said that are a “shelter of last resort” and readily admitted that most of the animals place in their care are indeed euthanized.

They said that most people take their dogs to local animal shelters and that the majority of animals brought to PETA headquarters are extremely sick or seriously injured and were specifically brought to their shelter to be humanely put to death.

PETA also talked about the costs involved in keeping every animal alive and said, in a much nicer way, that is is imply a matter of economic.

Groups opposed to PETA practices believe that if PETA would stop spending millions on publicity and start spending more on the care of animals that the amount of animals euthanized would decrease.

What do you think? Is PETA’s low adoption rate of just over one percent for 2013 acceptable?

In your opinion are PETA animal advocates or animal killers?